What pot value should I use for a 500T?

[Rex_Rocker]

So I decided I wanna switch it up with my Gibson. I love the Fluence Classics, but I kinda want the midrange muscle, agressive rasp, and compression of a good high-output Ceramic for a change.

However, what I don't want to loose is too much of that KERRANG when hitting the strings hard for vintage-style pickups. That slight bit of twang that I've struggled so much to get out of my Les Paul.

I'm dead set on a single volume control since I want to do the wiring myself, and I don't use the rest of the controls enough to warrant the extra trouble. Not sure if I should make it 1 Meg, 500K, or 250K. I'm 70% leaning to 1 Meg, but I'm not sure it it'd be too much. As far as I understand, the higher value just makes the resonant peak more intense, correct? So I fear that I might end up with a HUGE boost in the high mids rather than an airy open top end.

The time I had the 500T in the guitar, I had two 500K pots, one for volume, one for tone, for each pickup. So that means what the pickup was seeing was the equivalent of a single 250K volume, correct? I'm pretty sure I want to make it a bit more open this time around, but I'm not sure if 1 Meg might be too much.

Opionions? Thanks!

[beaubrummels]

The tone and volume pots don't add up like that because they are not in series on the hot signal. The tone goes to ground separately.

I would just use 500k, to sound like a normal 500T pickup sounds. Kerrang and all. If you want to ensure you get some top end, just buy a few 500k and measure to find the one that is over spec, like 510k or something.

[hamerfan]

I use 1 meg in a Telecaster together with a no load tone pot and it is not over the top. So i say dropping the tone pot is a good way to get more highs.
I can compare the 500T in my Gibson Classic with the Distortion in a other Les Paul, so i say the DD is much brighter than the 500T, which has a kind of muddiness in the lows too. Can‘t speak for the Black Winter.
My whole amp set up is tuned for single coil pickups. If you use a humbucker guitar with it, i engage a Naga Viper clone pedal as Treble booster (technically its a high pass which damps the lows a bit).

[Rex_Rocker]

I use 1 meg in a Telecaster together with a no load tone pot and it is not over the top. So i say dropping the tone pot is a good way to get more highs.
I can compare the 500T in my Gibson Classic with the Distortion in a other Les Paul, so i say the DD is much brighter than the 500T, which has a kind of muddiness in the lows too. Can‘t speak for the Black Winter.
My whole amp set up is tuned for single coil pickups. If you use a humbucker guitar with it, i engage a Naga Viper clone pedal as Treble booster (technically its a high pass which damps the lows a bit).

The BW is clearer and tighter than the 500T for sure. But the 500T has more of a 90's metal vibe. The BW is awesome, and honestly, what sold me on it was the Scandinavian Metal marketing. But it's really not very Scandinavian-sounding, IMO. It's more of a very modern-sounding pickup with some nastiness and grind thrown on top. Then again, In Flames sounds nothing like Entombed which sounds nothing like Mayhem.

[jeremy]

if it was me, id put a 500k volume in there and be done. i almost never like the change from a 500k to 1M, ymmv

[Rex_Rocker]

250 is out of the question, then. I used to run my BW's with 250's back in the day. But this Les Paul is REALLY fat and slightly dark.

Then again, my HX Stomp has variable input impedance. So maybe if I go for 1 Meg and find it's too much, I can just dial back the input impedance to load the pickup a bit?

[jeremy]

maybe? never been able to play with variable input impedance so dunno. i mean, pots are cheap and if theres only one, its easy enough to swap...

[freefrog]

Then again, my HX Stomp has variable input impedance. So maybe if I go for 1 Meg and find it's too much, I can just dial back the input impedance to load the pickup a bit?

If variable input impedance is correctly designed, yes, it should help. Now, Line6 does strange design choices sometimes (I think to how the tone pot behaves in my old Variax 500).

Regarding a single 1M pot, you're right, it might focus the power of the 500T in the high mids... and a 1M pot has a paradoxical action once lowered: as it puts more resistance between hot and output, it darkens the tone when lowered as much as it brightens it once full up. A treble bleed network might be useful there.

Personally, I pair the 500T with a switchable LR filter (8H, 16k), lowering the inductance and DCR to those of a P.A.F. clone. Works well for me. YMMV.

FWIW. HTH.

[Rex_Rocker]

If variable input impedance is correctly designed, yes, it should help. Now, Line6 does strange design choices sometimes (I think to how the tone pot behaves in my old Variax 500).

Regarding a single 1M pot, you're right, it might focus the power of the 500T in the high mids... and a 1M pot has a paradoxical action once lowered: as it puts more resistance between hot and output, it darkens the tone when lowered as much as it brightens it once full up. A treble bleed network might be useful there.

Personally, I pair the 500T with a switchable LR filter (8H, 16k), lowering the inductance and DCR to those of a P.A.F. clone. Works well for me. YMMV.

FWIW. HTH.

I don't really have the volume know anywhere but full on or full off, LOL.

I'm thinking I could also just wire in a push pull so that it takes up the space of one of the knobs and have it be either full on or full off, no pot whatsoever.

Would that be even brighter than 1Meg?

[jeremy]

marginally so, yes. not a drastic difference in my experience

[Rex_Rocker]

Which would be easier to wire in, tho? I just want to avoid as much soldering as possible, and if I can save a solder joint or two, I'd take it, LOL.

[freefrog]

What Jeremy said. But TBH, I don't know if/how a volume bypass would reshape in a favorable way the response of a 500T, specifically. Maybe I've somewhere the electrical response of this model unloaded? I don't remember. It would surely be faster and more informative to try it...

I'd / I'll read the report of such an experiment with interest. :-)

[Rex_Rocker]

I'm thinking 500K volume knob. Safest bet, I guess.

[Mincer]

I'd use 500k, unless I noticed an issue.

[Aceman]

Just get a 500k. You can always turn it down.

If it is too much, too bright, etc...then swap for a 250. Remember, many of the Gibson with 500T's came with Gibson 300k pots.